"Do you believe in infrastructure?” asks Norman Foster, with challenge in his voice. He does. Infrastructure, he says, is about “investing not to solve the problems of today but to anticipate the issues of future generations”. [...]
“I have no power as an architect, none whatsoever. I can’t even go on to a building site and tell people what to do.” Advocacy, he says, is the only power an architect ever has.
— theguardian.com
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7 Comments
My heart weeps for him.
^^Hehe ... the swiss mansions and lordship are all in vain, I guess tsk tsk
WTF is with all the helpless starchitects?
Wankers.
his point about advocacy is actually very true imo. The problem is when your client does not buy what you advocate for and you give in and do work that contradicts what you believe.. see 99% of all architecture.
He has no power, that's why he's not responsible for anything he does.
Advocacy is a meaningful power. It's the only power a lawyer or a writer has. Architects are petty if they overlook that.
When it resonates with people, the culture changes and thereafter the expectations of the law. Such was the process for womens suffrage and civil rights. Or more apropos, Jane Jacobs and the concept of citizens' cities. Getting people to believe a common truth is far more valuable than simply doing your own thing according to a private notion of principled action.
He's probably being more defensive re: new medias blame police.
He's also right, archs advocate for solution they think works best, or in the case of BIG, what gets profiled in GQ
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